Do you love exploring new ideas? Always secretly wished you knew more about how to create an app? Wonder what the next wave of library innovation might be?

If you answered yes, then Innovation in Libraries 2012 is for you. The event will happen after LITA Forum concludes on Oct. 7, and will continue through the morning of Oct. 8. Sponsored by OCLC and held at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Main Library, Innovation in Libraries 2012 is your chance to hear from experts and colleagues, and contribute your ideas. Library innovation of all flavors will be on tap; you are invited.

Whether you plan to attend LITA Forum or not, you are encouraged to share your innovations, ideas and instructive failures with fellow attendees at Innovation in Libraries 2012. There are three (3) potential ways to participate:

20 minute sessions These are your standard presentations where you showcase the interesting work you’re doing at your library/consortium, etc

5 minute lightning talks These are pecha kucha-style sessions designed to have 20 slides each

1 hour breakout session leader Brush up your group facilitation skills by volunteering to lead a breakout discussion on a specific topic. Examples include:

Building apps for tech services

Building apps for discovery layers

Library integration with nonlibrary functions

Nonlibrary apps and “what’s out there”

Your interesting topic here….

Potential themes

The following topics might get your creative juices flowing:

App ideation and creation

Apps usage and outcomes, results

Using APIs and Web services

Platform usage

Building a staff culture of creativity

Building useful tools for your library

Widgets, gadgets, plug-ins

Strategies to help staff innovate

Strategies to help users innovate

Basically, share something interesting, include a technical angle and explain how it helped your library/users/libraries worldwide in the process.

Registration for Innovation in Libraries 2012 is open now, at http://www.oclc.org/innovation. All accepted proposals will also need to register separately for the event, which is free to all attendees.